spunk.bet → Blog → Understanding House Edge
Updated February 2026 · 15 min read
Imagine you flip a fair coin 100 times. You'd expect about 50 heads and 50 tails. Now imagine the casino pays you $1.96 when you win, but you lose $2.00 when you lose. That difference -- the 4 cents -- is the house edge.
House edge is the built-in advantage every casino game has. It's how casinos make money. It's not cheating -- it's the business model. You pay a small fee on every bet for the entertainment of playing.
The key number: house edge percentage. A 2% house edge means for every $100 you bet, you lose $2 on average over time.
The formula is straightforward:
House Edge = 1 - (Payout Multiplier × Win Probability)
Let's calculate it for a simple coin flip game:
Win probability: 50%. Payout: 2x. House edge = 1 - (2 × 0.50) = 0%. This would be a perfectly fair game. No casino offers this because they'd make no money.
Win probability: 49%. Payout: 2x. House edge = 1 - (2 × 0.49) = 0.02 = 2%. The casino wins 51% of the time instead of 50%. That 1% shift creates a 2% house edge.
Because the 1% moves from your win column to your loss column. You lose 1% more AND win 1% less. The combined effect is 2%.
| Game | Win Prob | Payout | House Edge | Calculation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dice (over 50) | 49.5% | 2x | 1% | 1 - (2 × 0.495) |
| Coinflip | 49% | 2x | 2% | 1 - (2 × 0.49) |
| Crash (2x cashout) | 49.5% | 2x | 1% | 1 - (2 × 0.495) |
| Roulette (single zero) | 48.6% | 2x | 2.7% | 1 - (2 × 0.486) |
| Roulette (double zero) | 47.4% | 2x | 5.3% | 1 - (2 × 0.474) |
| Typical slot machine | Varies | Varies | 5-15% | Complex |
Notice how crypto-native games (Dice, Crash) typically have much lower house edges than traditional casino games (Roulette, Slots).
House edge is an average over many bets. In the short term, anything can happen. But over time, the math always wins.
Here's what 1,000 bets of 100 SPUNK look like at different house edges:
| House Edge | Total Wagered | Expected Loss | You Keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1% | 100,000 | 1,000 | 99,000 |
| 2% | 100,000 | 2,000 | 98,000 |
| 5% | 100,000 | 5,000 | 95,000 |
| 10% | 100,000 | 10,000 | 90,000 |
Playing a 1% house edge game costs you 10x less than a 10% game over the same number of bets. This is why game selection matters more than any betting strategy.
Use your 10,000 free SPUNK tokens to watch house edge work over hundreds of bets. Real math, zero cost.
Claim Free SPUNKCrypto casinos generally offer lower house edges because they have lower operating costs:
Where traditional slots might have a 5-15% house edge, crypto Dice and Crash games typically offer 1-2%. That's a massive difference over thousands of bets.
Good crypto casinos display their house edge clearly. Here's where to look:
It's the percentage of every bet the casino keeps on average. A 2% house edge means you lose 2 cents for every dollar bet, on average, over time.
Short-term yes (lucky streaks happen). Long-term no. The house edge is a mathematical certainty over enough bets. No strategy can overcome it permanently.
1-2% is excellent. 2-3% is good. Anything above 5% is high. For comparison, traditional slots are often 5-15%.
No. The house edge percentage is the same whether you bet 100 SPUNK or 100,000 SPUNK. It's built into the game math.
Lower operating costs (no buildings, less staff, less regulation), competition, and transparent provably fair systems that build trust without expensive third-party audits.
10,000 free SPUNK. Games with 1-2% edge. See the math for yourself.
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